enumerated among the precious stones in the high priest’s breastplate
(Exodus 28:17; 39:10). It is our red carnelian.
- SARDIS the metropolis of Lydia in Asia Minor. It stood on the river
Pactolus, at the foot of mount Tmolus. Here was one of the seven Asiatic
churches (Revelation 3:1-6). It is now a ruin called Sert-Kalessi. - SARDONYX (Revelation 21:20), a species of the carnelian combining the
sard and the onyx, having three layers of opaque spots or stripes on a
transparent red basis. Like the sardine, it is a variety of the chalcedony. - SAREPTA (Luke 4:26). See ZAREPHATH.
- SARGON (In the inscriptions, “Sarra-yukin” [the God] has appointed
the king; also “Sarru-kinu,” the legitimate king.) On the death of
Shalmaneser (B.C. 723), one of the Assyrian generals established himself
on the vacant throne, taking the name of “Sargon,” after that of the famous
monarch, the Sargon of Accad, founder of the first Semitic empire, as well
as of one of the most famous libraries of Chaldea. He forthwith began a
conquering career, and became one of the most powerful of the Assyrian
monarchs. He is mentioned by name in the Bible only in connection with
the siege of Ashdod (Isaiah 20:1).
At the very beginning of his reign he besieged and took the city of Samaria
(2 Kings 17:6; 18:9-12). On an inscription found in the palace he built at
Khorsabad, near Nieveh, he says, “The city of Samaria I besieged, I took;
27,280 of its inhabitants I carried away; fifty chariots that were among
them I collected,” etc. The northern kingdom he changed into an Assyrian
satrapy. He afterwards drove Merodach-baladan (q.v.), who kept him at
bay for twelve years, out of Babylon, which he entered in triumph. By a
succession of victories he gradually enlarged and consolidated the empire,
which now extended from the frontiers of Egypt in the west to the
mountains of Elam in the east, and thus carried almost to completion the
ambitious designs of Tiglath-pileser (q.v.). He was murdered by one of his
own soldiers (B.C. 705) in his palace at Khorsabad, after a reign of sixteen
years, and was succeeded by his son Sennacherib.